“Not like any we’re aware of. Not naval, not used by any oil exploration, either. The sub has advanced deep-sea sensing tech: cameras, lights, sonar. The only similar vessels I could find are used for searching out plane wrecks. But the weirdest things on board were some of the objects stored in a safe nearby: There are human bones and jewelry and watches. According to notes in the safe, it’s all historical. There are watches belonging to people who died in the Second World War, bones belonging to Japanese crewmen from the sixteenth century, you name it.”

“What the hell were they up to?”

“Peer behind a couple of front companies, and the owner of the boat turns out to be Jerry Lau, son of one of Hong Kong’s biggest property developers. This is where it gets troubling. Lau was security vetted by us in 2016. It looks like he was on our books in some capacity, being run by officer DX/3372.”

“Who’s vanished.”

“Right.

“So, what does Lau use the boat for?”

“He’s a treasure hunter.”

“A treasure hunter?”

“That’s his thing: searches shipwrecks for treasure. It’s how he spends his millions. He’d been cruising for lost galleons or something just a week before the hit, then got called away to some business in Hong Kong. His crew were going to reconvene with him the following week. I ran Lau through our system and almost all traces of him have been scrubbed away. But since word broke of what happened in the Philippines, he’s been trying to contact us. He’s hiding somewhere in London and claims we owe him protection.”

“Has he said what he did for us?”

“Not to me.”

“Any idea where he is?”

“No, but I’ve got a number.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Keep searching for someone who knows what’s going on. What put you onto it?”

“A thing,” Taylor said. “Do me a favor—hold off searching for a moment. I’m going to see what I can do. This touches on something, and I’d appreciate you keeping it to yourself for now.”

Hawkes looked at her with wary acceptance. This happened—a polite word, a nudge: This touches on something live. Usually at least one of you knew what was going on.

Taylor returned to her own department. The first light of morning lay flat against the windows. The chief had called and instructed her to present herself at his office asap. That had to mean he knew about the chaos unfolding on Ascension.

Kudus was in.

“I heard,” he said.

“You shouldn’t have.”

“I came in early to read about Argentine oil exploration. I got told about another girl missing. I thought it might take priority.”

“And?”

“Kane’s been arrested. The girl comes up in reports as a friend of Petra Wade. Someone said you were upstairs.”